PC indie adventure To The Moon tackles death with a touch of humor

The upcoming indie game To The Moon may look like an old-school RPG, but it's …

With smaller budgets and teams, indie games have the ability to be more personal than titles from large publishers. When Kan Gao's grandfather was hospitalized with a heart condition and Gao began to think about the inevitability of death, he took those themes and translated them into a game: To The Moon, a PC adventure masquerading as a 16-bit RPG.

"I wondered that when my time came, whether I'd regret what came to be and wish to be able to get a second chance to fulfill what I wanted," Gao told Ars about his reaction to his grandfather's medical condition. "And hey, I probably will, if not just for the reason that the grass is greener on the other side."

That desire for a second chance is what spawned the Total Recall-meets-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind story of To The Moon. In the game world, doctors can implant artificial memories into the brains of patients, but the results are so devastating that the patient can no longer function properly once the procedure is completed. This procedure is reserved for the terminally ill, serving as a sort of last wish.

It's not all deadly serious, though.

"Despite the melodramatic nature of the theme, To the Moon is actually a tragicomedy," explained Gao. "While it certainly is a serious story in the core, the journey doesn’t always take itself too seriously, as it is seen through the perspectives of the doctors who aren’t always particularly sensitive. To put it pretentiously, it’s a bit of a play-in-a-play, and the difficulty comes from balancing the two sides."

To The Moon

In addition to being a game about life and death, To The Moon is about the deceptiveness of appearances. Not only is it a comedy hidden beneath a tragedy, but it's also an adventure game that looks like a retro RPG in the vein of Chrono Trigger. The game features no turn-based combat or experience points, and instead focuses on two doctors as they attempt to piece together the memories of a dying man who wants to go, of course, to the moon.

The clash of visual style and actual gameplay may confuse potential players, but Gao isn't worried. In fact, he's made sure to poke fun at the contrast in the game.

"I haven’t really thought much about it," he said, "the style of retro RPGs just always seemed really versatile to me, especially from a storytelling perspective. I knew what I wanted to make and how I wanted the experience to be, so I went for it first and considered what to call it second."

The team at Freebird Games has been working on To The Moon for around a year an a half, though Gao is the only one working full-time on the game, providing most of the development and writing, as well as the majority of the soundtrack. He's been helped by four other developers, including Laura Shigihara, the composer and singer behind the ridiculously catchy song from Plants vs Zombies.

The plan is to release on PC first this fall, and the team is hoping to eventually have the game running on other platforms as well. But "for now, only PC is certain," Gao explained.You can follow To The Moon's progress over at the game's official site.

It sounds like an interesting concept, but I'd rather read a review when it actually comes out. At this point it's vapor ware that I will forget to check on, and they don't seem to be soliciting help or funds. Too many squirrels to bark at in the meantime!

I discovered Ken Gao nearly 3 years ago when I started playing his RPG epic "Quintessence: the blighted venom". I was touched then by the strength of the atmospheric storytelling he managed to weave with the simple tools of RPG Maker and music-making software. It's exciting to discover that he is taking his talent to the next level with his very own video-game studio and more concerted efforts.

While I wish the devs success, I hope this isn't the new trend in Indie PC game titles - the crappy-looking 16-bit knock-off games. It's already grown old, imho. It's a PC...use its capabilities. If I want to look at some throwback graphics, I'll get an emulator or fire up my wife's NES.

While I wish the devs success, I hope this isn't the new trend in Indie PC game titles - the crappy-looking 16-bit knock-off games. It's already grown old, imho. It's a PC...use its capabilities. If I want to look at some throwback graphics, I'll get an emulator or fire up my wife's NES.

1) I would hate to be a game dev or artist and be told I have to "use the PC's capabilities" because perhaps I don't fucking want to spend all my time tweaking hi-res textures on ridiculously-high polygon models and just want to get on with making my game the way I want. 2) Pixel art is its own art form, and it attracts people who enjoy that aesthetic or the challenges of the medium. For some, "throwback" is the entire point. Others appreciate the skill it takes to convey a compelling message with palette limits and low resolution sprites, or trying to tile a background without making the tile aspect too obtrusive. You might as well tell us to stop using black and white photography/cinematography because "we have color now!"

While I wish the devs success, I hope this isn't the new trend in Indie PC game titles - the crappy-looking 16-bit knock-off games. It's already grown old, imho. It's a PC...use its capabilities. If I want to look at some throwback graphics, I'll get an emulator or fire up my wife's NES.

And yet it's funny how those 16-bit games are better than most modern games that use the PC's capabilities. To me, the whole "it has to be in 3D or it sucks" thing is getting quite tired.

While I wish the devs success, I hope this isn't the new trend in Indie PC game titles - the crappy-looking 16-bit knock-off games. It's already grown old, imho. It's a PC...use its capabilities. If I want to look at some throwback graphics, I'll get an emulator or fire up my wife's NES.

And yet it's funny how those 16-bit games are better than most modern games that use the PC's capabilities. To me, the whole "it has to be in 3D or it sucks" thing is getting quite tired.

Consider the ones voicing those complaints: tweens and X-Box owners that believe the "exclusive" line on half its games "because a PC is still Microsoft" (apparently even when I'm playing it in WINE on one of my Linux machines...)

These are the same zombies that gobble up each and every piss-poor Halo game, WoW expansion, WoWclone, CoD and BF game, etc. and worship it as the first and greatest in the universe of whatever it is. The same people that think Apple invented the MP3 player with the iPod (or even released a good one with the iPod, for that matter, instead of just good marketing for it), or that Gears of War's cover system was new and innovative (the number of games that beat their exact system to market by years is pretty extensive).

The point is, it's a bunch of kids that aren't so much into gaming, or anything else. What they _are_ into is what they're _told_ to be into, and that's what the mass media and all this lowest-common denominator garbage that's taking over the industry is catered to. With few exceptions, the industry as a whole doesn't give a flying fuck about the gamers, they care about the "casuals" (to use the polite euphemism.) Even CCP, a company known for telling whiners where they can shove it, has been easing back and coddling the children a bit more, by removing restrictions that forced different tactics, now allowing more simplistic setups and less thought behind those setups.

The rest of us gamers? We'll keep looking for the good games. Minecraft, Cthulhu Saves the World, Heavy Rain, and LittleBigPlanet, all spring to mind as prime examples of great games with true innovation (at least and in particular, Minecraft, Heavy Rain, and LittleBigPlanet), and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Good games are still out there, they're just not as common, and you have to look for them.

It's an adventure game, _not_ an RPG. Very few adventure games have had combat, and even when they have ("Full Throttle" and "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey" are two of the only ones that spring to mind), they've been extremely rudimentary. Adventure games are about (wait for it...) adventure, exploration, solving puzzles and problems, and being immersed and involved in a deep story. Are the similarities to RPGs? Certainly, but not to what we think of when we're talking about a video game RPG. The best comparison might be some of the White Wolf tabletop RPGs, known (at leats in the old system; new World of Darkness is pretty pathetic) for their focus on the social aspects, instead of just fighting and leveling and getting loot).

It's an adventure game, _not_ an RPG. Very few adventure games have had combat, and even when they have ("Full Throttle" and "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey" are two of the only ones that spring to mind), they've been extremely rudimentary.

It's an adventure game, _not_ an RPG. Very few adventure games have had combat, and even when they have ("Full Throttle" and "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey" are two of the only ones that spring to mind), they've been extremely rudimentary.

Hey, I'm open to exceptions However, it doesn't change the validity of my statement, as it holds true for nearly all adventure games.

As an interesting aside, wouldn't their prior use of the name "Hero's Quest" invalidate the Sierra trademark on the name? They may not have trademarked it themselves (a silly mistake), but failure to enforce trademark just means you lose the trademark, it doesn't mean you can't use the name anymore. Or at least that was my understanding of it. Because they were already using the name, I wouldn't have thought Sierra would be able to get claim on it and then actually enforce it: the "Quest for Glory" guys had and used the name first, heh

While I wish the devs success, I hope this isn't the new trend in Indie PC game titles - the crappy-looking 16-bit knock-off games. It's already grown old, imho. It's a PC...use its capabilities. If I want to look at some throwback graphics, I'll get an emulator or fire up my wife's NES.

1) I would hate to be a game dev or artist and be told I have to "use the PC's capabilities" because perhaps I don't fucking want to spend all my time tweaking hi-res textures on ridiculously-high polygon models and just want to get on with making my game the way I want. 2) Pixel art is its own art form, and it attracts people who enjoy that aesthetic or the challenges of the medium. For some, "throwback" is the entire point. Others appreciate the skill it takes to convey a compelling message with palette limits and low resolution sprites, or trying to tile a background without making the tile aspect too obtrusive. You might as well tell us to stop using black and white photography/cinematography because "we have color now!"

You forgot the number one reason: Money

Developers don't have enough funds to license a state of the art game engine, and it only helps considering he's a semi 1 man team working on this project.

To wytefang: If you detest the decision so much; then make your own. Why not start with the Source engine, or hell even make a popular youtube video using Gmod. Then perhaps you can have clout to your argument.